RC+ Recap: Reds crushed in Luis Castillo’s worst career start

Luis Castillo turned in the worst start of his career while Adam Wainwright turned back the clock with a vintage performance as the Cardinals topped the Reds 13-4 on Friday. St. Louis jumped all over Castillo from the jump, scoring in all but the third inning and bashing three home runs.

Castillo had the disadvantage of some horrible calls from home-plate umpire in the first inning and gave up an average exit velocity of only 80.6 mph. At one point, he induced four straight batted balls of less than 60 mph. The last of those went for a two-out single to Kolten Wong (.140 xBA). He gave up a single to Wainwright before Dexter Fowler blew the game open early with a three-run homer.

The Cardinals didn’t have much hard contact against Castillo, but they made it count when they did.

Castillo gave up a career-worst eight runs and was bounced after 4.1 innings.

The wheels fell off with Matt Bowman on the mound. He gave up four more runs (three earned) on six hits in 1.2 innings. Like Castillo, though, Bowman was hurt by some tough batted-ball luck. Four of the six hits he allowed had exit velocities of 83.3 mph or less. One was a 43.9 mph infield single by Yadier Molina. It was just that kind of night.

Joel Kuhnel also made his major-league debut and allowed a solo home run in his inning of work. Kuhnel touched 98 and sat at 96 with his fastball.

Jose Peraza also pitched, so yeah.

Aristides Aquino was the lone bright spot in this one. He homered again, his 10th in 16 career games. You guessed it; that’s another major-league record.

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